I grew up on this guy. I was first introduced to his penmanship by his stories "the sparrows" and "the mark of vishnu" , which feature in the textbooks for CBSE. The adoration grew when i was introduced to his column - "With Malice towards one and all" in Hindustan Times by my grand father. Ever since i look forward to a new dose of malice comprising his views on national / international affairs every lazy Saturday morning. His columns was one of the reasons i switched back to Hindustan Times when it was launched in Bombay.
I recently read his novel - "I shall not hear the Nightingale" and am looking forward to get my hands on some more of his works from the 70s. I salute him for his secularism, his acidic wit, his courage to call a spade a spade, his scholarship and knowledge which comes from the being the business of celebrating the written word for more then six decades.
In 2007 he was honoured with Padma Vibhushan by the President of India. Outlook recently did a cover on him. At 92 the sardar is still rocking with a bottle of whisky in hand and beautiful women by his side.
Khushwant Singh on L.K. Advani : I have told him to his face, "You don’t drink, you don’t smoke, you don’t womanise. Such men are dangerous".
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